My online Book Review of the Month is dedicated to Newman’s Unquiet Grave by John Cornwell (Published by Continuum) I have two reasons for picking John Cornwell’s biography of Newman as my latest book of the month. First on the personal front, my own recently published attempt at biography, Papa Spy , reminded me of how much its subject, my father, the late Tom Burns, owed to Newman, as a leading Catholic publisher (and wartime spook at odds with those Marxists who had infiltrated British intelligence.) From his early schooldays …
The wise Jesuit
I cannot recall ever having been present in a congregation that greeted a sermon by a Catholic priest with more deserving spontaneous applause, not in England at least. But applause was what Fr William Pearsall the Jesuit priest at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street got this Sunday after speaking with sensitivity and wisdom about the upcoming Papal visit. Fr William began by telling us how a day earlier he had opened his office window and listened to the raucous song emanating from nearby Hyde Park. He heard …
Not in harmony with Catholic Voices
I’m listening withy difficulty I came away from last night’s debate at the Conway Hall on the upcoming Papal visit with an uneasy feeling I found myself quickly trying to dispel, drowning a pint with a sympathetic friend at a local pub. I write as a journalist, author and Catholic who found myself poorly represented by Austen Ivereigh and Fr Christopher Jamison OSB, coordinator and patron respectively of Catholic Voices before a packed audience, in which a majority appeared less than enamoured with our current Pope. Catholic Voices is a …
Barca: beware of The Transalator
A long season ahead Barca has got off to a good start this season, winning the Spanish SuperCup and beating Racing Santander 0-3 , but it would be foolish for cules to get over excited at this stage. It would be foolish in the extreme to write off Jose Mourinho on the basis of a somewhat lacklustre draw for Real Madrid in Mallorca. Mourinho has signed up an exciting crop of talented young players led by Mezut Ozila. He will be relying on the experience of Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo …
A tale of Ireland in Ramadam
A young woman graduate I had the pleasure to meet over supper last night spoke with an accent I quickly recognised from my days of reporting on the Troubles n Northern Ireland. Sarah was her name. She was impressed how I managed to pinpoint her roots to ‘north of Belfast’ and well beyond the city to another town with a name that I thought might define her. “Well, its Derry, or Londonderry, isn’t it, how do you call it? “ I asked teasingly. For decades Catholics, north and south of …
A Dark Book in August
This month’s online Book Review: Berlin at War by Roger Moorhouse (Bodley Head) 432 pages August in the northern hemisphere always has always struck me as having something of a tail-end feel about it, not least in the publishing industry. Long-past are the pre-Christmas heavy-hitters with ‘star’ authors or their ‘star’ topics hogging the front-desks. Gone too is the excitement of the new titles out in spring and early summer. Many readers have taken the few good hits, in paperback, off to the beach for the last glimpse of sun …
A very English Redemption
Sadly I was unable to be in Dublin to watch how Argentina is managing without Diego. I suspect life must be less entertaining down in the dressing room and on the touchline, but a little more ordered and strategic. I did however belatedly catch some highlights of the England vs. Hungary match. That the majority of fans did not greet the team with boos as many pundits had predicted did not surprise me. Ok England’s performance in South Africa was a disgrace, as is the fact that Capello survived as …
Ok, Let’s relive the dream
I held the World Cup for a whole thirty seconds last night. Ok, it was only a replica- (see news item elsewhere on this site) but it brought back good memories. So I write this today in deference to Carlos Oppe, one of my most loyal, persistent, and-just about-publishable commentators. (My Maradona CNN.com opinion piece has stimulated transatlantic abuse)I hope it will encourage others to join a civilised debate on this and other matters discussed on this site. The human wave rose in a town in South Africa, gathered force …
Maradona’s questionable exit
Don’t be fooled by the formal announcement from Buenos Aires that Maradona’s contract will not be renewed. There is nothing that Diego likes more than to be placed in a situation where he can rally his believers round a claim of martyrdom by sinister powers. He did so when he was busted for drugs back in the early 1990’s, he did it again when he tested positive in the US World Cup. He is likely to seize this moment as part of the latest round of an enduring struggle between …
Let me cry for Diego
Let me cry for Diego I watched Argentina being knocked out of the World Cup by Germany in a pub in Sheffield surrounded by bitter-drinking Yorkshiremen, and emerged shedding a tear or two. Why should Diego’s biographer choose Sheffield of all places to watch Diego Maradona meet his nemesis in Joachim Low? Well those of us with memories will remember that it was from here that just before Christmas 1978, Harry Haslam the manager of Sheffield United flew to Buenos Aires determined to strike a deal with Argentinos Juniors …
